Page 61 of A Reign of Storm and Madness

“I’ll be away this Sunday,” I say quietly as I sit on the bed again and tug on my boots. I push my thoughts into her mind, directing her to see what I need from her while I’m gone. After a beat, she lowers her front two legs to the mattress and then scuttles away, disappearing behind the bed and into another hole in the wall. She’ll likely be off to find herself some breakfast and then after, she’ll gather the other spiders.

Just as I think of Aranea catching her breakfast, my stomach rumbles with hunger. Scrubbing a hand down my face, I stand and move towards the door, ready for the rest of this week to finish so that Sunday may come all the sooner.

I head to meet up with Niall in the droves of Terra moving like the living dead, their eyes half closed and heads hanging low as they all trudge towards the Terra dining hall through the cold. He’s bundled in a dark gray jacket with his arms crossed over his chest and hands tucked against his sides as he walks.

Despite my different uniform, no one seems to care today who they’re walking next to as I slip into their masses until I make my way to Niall and nudge him. He starts and swings his gaze around, wide-eyed, but when he sees it’s me, he calms considerably and even offers me a small, tired smile.

I frown. “Are you okay?” I ask, curiously.

He nods, but the response is interrupted by a loud, jaw-cracking yawn and he blinks a moment later as if it’d startled him. Shaking his head, we move into the dining hall and sigh in relief as the cold goes from biting and harsh to only mildly uncomfortable.

“I’m okay,” Niall finally answers me. “I’m just tired.”

“Everyone seems that way,” I note, glancing around pointedly before refocusing on him. He looks exhausted, but he always seemed far more accustomed to the work as a Terra than I. What could be causing him distress?

“Winter means shorter daylight hours, but no less work,” he says. “The dark, I think, makes us all sleepier than we realize.”

“Are you sure there’s nothing else?” I insist. “Do you need help?”

Niall avoids looking at me as he stares straight ahead and shakes his head. “No, nothing else. I’m fine. I don’t need any help.”

Lie.

He’s definitely not fine. There are deep bruises beneath his eyes and they match many others. “Did you receive extra duties?” I ask.

He stiffens and then blinks, as if remembering something. He turns and looks at me. “What makes you ask that?”

Answering a question with another question. One of the oldest tricks in the book for evasion. “Niall.” I level him with a look. I stop walking and because he doesn’t want to leave me—because that’s just the kind of man he is—he stops walking too. Even as other Terra move around us, some shooting us dirty looks and most scowling at me openly. I’m surprised no one has been mean to him because of me, because he and I seem so—realization hits me.

“Have the other Terra been asking you to do their chores as well?” I demand.

He flushes and ducks his head. “I’m really hungry this morning, Kiera,” he says. Another evasion. “Can we please hurry before all the good stuff is gone?”

I grab him by the shoulders. “Who?” I demand.

Niall immediately flicks his eyes up to someone over my shoulder and then back down. “No one.”

I look behind me, but there are too many Terra here for me to know which one he’d been seeking out with that telling gaze of his. I flip back to him. “Tell me who is harassing you, Niall,” I order, squeezing hard enough just to show how serious I am.

“It’s not a big deal,” Niall argues. “I’m just helping out a few Terra who’ve been falling behind—”

“A few? How many?”

Niall pinches his eyes shut as more pink travels up his face to fill his cheeks as well as his neck. “It’s…” He opens his eyes and gives me a pleading look. “Really nothing. Please, can we get in line? I was too busy to eat dinner last night, so I’m hungry now.”

Too busy to eat dinner? My upper lip curls back in irritation.

Before I can say no and argue, Niall pulls back and I have to release him or risk hurting him. He gives me a small sad smile and then turns, following the last remaining Terra who have made it into the dining hall. I stare after him as a sinking feeling spreads in my gut.

I watch him go, feeling like it’s the wrong thing to do, but I don’t know what else I can do. My hands clench into fists and I glance over my shoulder once more, scanning the room from side to side as I try to seek out any faces or any clues as to who might be responsible for those dark circles under Niall’s eyes.

This is why I don’t make friends on missions. This is why I don’t care. Because when I start, I care too much.

I don’t find out which of the other Terra are responsible for Niall’s obvious exhaustion, but I do convince someone to tell me where the Second Tier residence building that Maeryn lives in is and which room is hers. A few denza I’d snuck into the Academy with me and the female Terra that had been straggling inside as the last of the line for the food was diminishing had been all too happy to take my coin and offer up the information. I’d slipped out before Niall had gotten his food or seen who I’d been talking to or where I’d gone.

For one, I need to tell her what’s going on with Niall, and as a healer, there’s something else she might be able to do for me.

Now, as all the rest of the Terra are eating their breakfast in the relative warmth of the dining hall, I’m sprinting across campus to the dorm building. Of course, it would be just my luck that she’d be in the south tower, as far from the north tower and the Terra buildings as possible.

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